You may remember a statement made by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata earlier this year in which he said that sales of the 3DS in the United States and Europe have been “weak” compared to the performance in Japan.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, responding to this and the handheld’s sales in general, jokingly said:
“When he said that, I had a sharp pain in my neck. It was in the middle of the night, and I viscerally reacted to it.”
Fils-Aime followed up with more serious commentary, confirming that sales in Japan have indeed been better than sales in North America:
Update 2: Both presentations are 3DS-related and will have a smaller focus. There’s some speculation that this will be about just one game.
Update: George claims in other tweets that a Japanese broadcast will be shown at 8:00 PM PDT / 11:00 PM EDT. The English event should be soon after this, but “may or may not be tonight.”
Out of the blue, Nintendo of America has apparently confirmed that it will host its own Nintendo Direct tonight. It looks like this will be a NA-specific broadcast as Nintendo’s Japanese/European divisions haven’t announced anything on their end.
Strangely, the upcoming Nintendo Direct isn’t mentioned on NoA’s Facebook or Twitter accounts. We’re only hearing about this through IGN’s Rich George.
If this is really happening tonight, we should have more news very soon.
Ninja Gaiden III director Yosuke Hayashi is very much a supporter of Wii U. In an interview with the Official Nintendo Magazine, Hayashi noted that the GamePad and hardware “could get many people to pay attention to console games once again.”
“The biggest difference compared to other Nintendo hardware released until now is that it is not trying to complete with ‘only one’ feature. Obviously, the Wii U GamePad is a huge feature, but the Wii U isn’t only about that. There’s the hardware performance, network capabilities and, of course, the titles that fully utilise these aspects. From this all-encompassing gaming abilitity I get the impression that this hardware could get many people to pay attention to console games once again.”
Hayashi went on to discuss Miiverse, which he believes “has the potential to become a kind of virtual amusement park for game fans.” On a personal note, he’s excited about the feature.
“The biggest change of direction from the Wii would be the Miiverse. It’s usually introduced as a social networking tool, but I feel it has the potential to become a kind of virtual amusement park for game fans. With SNS [Social Networking Sites] making a lot of unique advancements, as a gamer, I am excited to see how the Miiverse will grow within the realm of console games.”
The tenth episode of Nintendo TV can now be viewed on the European eShop. Games highlighted include Pokemon Black/White 2 and WWE ’13.
Here’s a sneak peak of Geoff Keighley’s interview with Reggie Fils-Aime that will be featured on tonight’s episode of GT.TV:
Nintendo of Europe’s website was updated with confirmations of two digital games for release next week.
First up is Mole Mania. Shigeru Miyamoto’s classic Game Boy title will be available on the 3DS eShop as a Virtual Console download on October 4 for £2.70.
Also launching next Thursday is Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers. You’ll likely be able to get this for 900 points or so.
At the moment, Grid 2 isn’t heading to Wii U. Codemasters actually doesn’t have any titles in the works for the console that we know about.
That being said, the company is leaving the door ajar for future possibilities.
Grid 2 associate producer Iain Smith told Joystiq that “there’s every opportunity at some point down the line” of a Wii U version. He added that other Codemasters games aren’t being ruled out for the system either.
Smith stated:
“It’s not being ruled out certainly. And certainly [that applies] across all Codemasters titles. Some platforms are more appropriate for certain types of games, but we just have to make decisions as and when they’re appropriate. We can’t say too much more at the moment.”
